Nigel whybrow

The discovery of the fossil bones and landscapes that tell of this ancient past has been the result of nearly twenty years of painstaking scientific investigation, both by fossil experts palaeontologists from overseas institutions like the Natural History Museum in London and Yale University, in the United States, and by local bodies like the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey, ADIAS, and the Department of Antiquities and Tourism in the Diwan of the Ruler's Representative in Abu Dhabi's Eastern Region.

It is our hope that, together, the book and the exhibition will introduce residents of the Emirates, in particular the younger generation, to this fascinating aspect of the country's past. In times such as these, when the United Arab Emirates is developing at a breathtaking pace and is enjoying all of the benefits of modern technology and services, it is appropriate that we should take the time to remember the country's past - for it is from there that we derive our roots, and from there that the environment of today has evolved.

Without knowledge of our past heritage, both human and natural, we cannot fully appreciate the benefits of today, and those to come in the future. Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. Jaw from a three-toed horse Hipparion. Scale is a one dirham coin. Figure 5. Cliff section at Jebel Barakah, with Peter Whybrow. Figure 6. Map showing the location of fossil sites in the western region of Abu Dhabi. Figure 7. Ernie Hailwood drilling at Jebel Barakah in taking palaeomagnetic dating samples.

Peter Whybrow observing. Figure 8. Crocodile Ikanogavialis jaw from Shuwaihat Site S1, no. Figure 9. Plan of the elephant excavation at Shuwaihat. Stippled area indicates carbonate gravel spread after Whybrow and Hill , Fig. Figure A sabre-tooth cat tries to sink its teeth into the primitive 3-toed horse, Hipparion.

Abu Dhabi 8 million years ago — reconstruction painting by Gemma Goodall. Searching for fossils at Ruwais.

Map of the location of fossil sites at Ruwais. Red line marks the area of the Takreer development. Blue square indicates the core development area. Types of Fossils represented at Ruwais. Will Higgs prepares the Polyeurathane foam jacket around the tusk to help protect it. Top: the elephant tusk is now sitting completely on its wooden and steel supporting frame and its polyeurathane foam jacket is complete.

Bottom: Takreer provides a crane and lorry to transport the tusk to Abu Dhabi. The elephant jaws at site RUW Note the four elephant ribs visible in the foreground. The 1. Removing the polyeurathane jacket from the elephant tusk. Top: Nigel Larkin working on the conservation and preparation for display of the elephant tusk from site RUW, Ruwais. Bottom: Section through the tusk and platform to show the supporting plaster and jesmonite base.

Note the elephant jaws from site RUW in the right foreground. Location of the two Mleisa and Niqa trackway sites. View of the plain at Mleisa. View of the main trackway at Mleisa. Basic measurements used to describe a track, after Thulborn Top: Measuring the shoulder height of a modern Asian elephant at Blackpool Zoo.

Bottom: Walking the elephant on raked sand to record measurements on its tracks. Comparison of the track measurements between modern Asian elephants from Blackpool Zoo with three examples from the Mleisa site. Footprint of a five-toed animal discovered at Niqa. Hippo Hexaprotodon aff. Equid Hipparion sp. Hyena Hyena sp. Sabre-tooth cat Machairodontinae gen. Giraffe Palaeotragus sp.

Monkey Cercopithecidae gen. Giraffe Bramatherium sp. Ostrich Struthio sp. Freshwater clam shells Mutela and Leguminaia sp. Catfish Bagrus shuwaiensis sp. Crocodile Crocodylus sp. Turtle Trionyx sp. Acacia Acacia sp. Various reconstructions of Stegotetrabelodon and similar animals. Postage stamps from Libya issued in depicting Stegotetrabelodon syrticus. Abdul Hafeez and his team from the Private Department of His Highness the President working on the construction of the model of Stegotetrabelodon syrticus.

Applying modelling clay onto the frame. Abdul Hafeez patiently sculpting the model of Stegotetrabelodon syrticus. Izhar Hafeez prepares a fibreglass and latex mould of the model. Scale model of Stegotetrabelodon syrticus. Figure 66a. Hippos Hexaprotodon on the riverbank and swimming in the river together with a freshwater turtle. Crocodiles slip down into the river gliding towards their prey. In the distance some antelopes graze on the plain.

Figure 66b. Group of old world monkeys. Three ostriches in the distance. Figure 66c. Group of Deinotheres with giraffids Sivatheres in the distance. Figure 66d.

A sabre-tooth cat pounces and attempts to sink its teeth into the neck of a hipparion, with egrets on the riverbank in the distance. Miocene megafauna. Charles R. The first archaeological work was initiated by a Danish team in , and concentrated on the island of Umm an-Nar, adjacent to Abu Dhabi island, and in the Al Ain area of the Eastern Region of Abu Dhabi. Further surveys were carried out by Iraqi teams between and , mainly in coastal and inland areas of the Northern Emirates.

A team from CNRS Paris has excavated at several sites in and around Al Ain since , while a number of other foreign teams have worked throughout the Northern Emirates since the mids. If we exclude the reconnaissance by an Iraqi surveying team, headed by the late Mohamed Ali Mustafa, to Jebel Dhanna in 1 and the short exploration of the island of Dalma by another Iraqi archaeological team in , the Western Region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi remained terra incognita until March when the first survey was undertaken by the Department of Antiquities and Tourism in Al Ain.

On behalf of the Department, a survey team of five archaeologists five from Germany and two from Al Ain surveyed parts of the coast of the Western Region 2. The survey extended for around km along the coast, but a lack of facilities and transport meant that the offshore islands were not visited.

However, islands connected by causeway to the coast, like Thumayriyah, were visited. Sites ranging in date between the 3rd and the 1st millennium B. C and several Late Islamic sites were identified. Before this survey, the Western Region had been considered to be peripheral to past occupation of the Emirate.

The results of the work by the Al Ain Department of Antiquities team 3 , however, not only indicated the importance of the area from an archaeological point of view, but also showed that it was of palaeontological importance 4. Apart from the archaeological sites located by the Al Ain team, a large and very interesting collection of fossilised bones of Miocene date was discovered.

Among the bones were a lower mandible of a jaw belonging to a hippopotamus, large elephant bones, several bones that were at first unidentified and fossilised plants. The discovery of the fossils was then announced locally 5. Further investigations were then undertaken by specialist palaeontologists, as described below. Palaeontology Following the discovery of the fossils by B. Vogt and his team, the present writer recognised their significance, and commenced a search to find specialists to study both the fossils themselves and the geological strata in which they were present.

Initial contact was made with Dr. Hans-Peter Uerpmann, who was then studying the animal bones from Hili 8, a Bronze Age site in the Eastern Region of Abu Dhabi, and Uerpmann promised to assist in identifying an appropriate specialist. The latter, then involved in similar research in Kenya, expressed interest, and was invited to the UAE by the Department of Antiquities and Tourism in Hill and the writer examined the collection.

Hill immediately recognised the importance of the fossils, being able to identify the presence of crocodiles, turtles, ostrich, bovids, Hexaprotodon and a gomphothere proboscidean. Fossil wood was also present. Hill confirmed the initial identifications made by Vogt and his team but also recognised the presence of other species among the collection.

Hill and Yasin then visited the areas where the collection had been made, to collect other material that had been left in situ. This included a mandible of a small Hipparion and some turtle bone. They also undertook further survey, and identified new fossil-bearing areas. Hill also found that Whybrow had previously visited Jebel Barakah in , and had found a proximal ulna of a bovid.

In , however, just before the Hill and Yasin visit, he and Peter Andrews, Professor of Geology at Cambridge University, had re- examined Jebel Barakah and a number of new areas, finding more fossils. In Whybrow and M. Bassiouni a professor of geology from Ain Shams and Qatar Universities published a more comprehensive review of the Arabian Miocene, a result of the cooperation between Whybrow and the Emirates University.

At around the same time, while the current writer was visiting Whybrow at the Natural History Museum in London, he was shown the specimens he had collected from the Western Region, in association with the Emirates University. Three years later, on 1st January , a new and comprehensive phase of research on the palaeontology of the Western Region began under the aegis of the Al Ain Department of Antiquities and Tourism, and involving Hill, Whybrow and the present writer Figs.

A visit to the Hamra area found fossilised plant remains. On 3rd January, the island of Shuwaihat, west of Jebel Dhanna, was visited, with a number of large fossils, including fossils of crocodiles and elephants, being located along the western foothills of its eastern ridge. More field work was undertaken, with collected specimens including a deinothere tooth fragment Hamra 5 and a mandible of a mustelid, the first to be found in Arabia.

The results of this short season were so promising that another season was arranged for December and January , with the team being joined by Ernie Hailwood and Sally McBrearty. The discovery of this tooth coincided with a visit by former UAE President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan to Jebel Dhanna and Whybrow, Hill and the author were able to show the tooth to him on 1st January , and to explain to him the significance of the finds and the evidence that an ancient river had once flowed through the area.

The source of the river, which had not yet been determined, was discussed with the President at some length. In , as a result of events in the Gulf region, only Whybrow visited, finding a Hipparion mandible Fig. By this time, the fieldwork undertaken by Whybrow, Hill and Yasin had come to an end.

Hellyer, S. Aspinall and M. Beech, and were subsequently excavated. These are discussed further in Chapter 3. Further finds have also been made, while the area containing Late Miocene fossils has now been shown to extend as far east as Rumaitha, around 40 km, south-west of Abu Dhabi. Discoveries continue in the field. The early phases of detailed work in and , however, laid the groundwork for what was to follow — proving that the Late Miocene fossil vertebrate fauna of the Western region of Abu Dhabi was of international importance.

Mustafa was also shown a sulphur mine by ADCO officials and he attributed it to the presence of the Portuguese in the region pers. It has been mistakenly mentioned elsewhere that Munir Taha was head of the team when the mine was shown to Mustafa although Taha, in fact, never visited Jebel Dhanna. Hellyer and G. Although not published, the excavators partly uncovered a house built of some stone and gypsum with some potsherds and a limited amount of other material, including an incomplete glass goblet.

Prior to this visit, Jabir Khalil, head of the Iraqi team, and Walid Yasin, then already a member of the Al Ain Department of Antiquities and Tourism, visited the island by helicopter in early , but were able to spend only 40 minutes there, during which they identified some small stone cairns, of possible prehistoric date, and the structure later excavated by the Iraqi team.

Vogt, W. Gockel, H. Hofbauer, A. Al Haj and W. Y Al Tikriti. Several sites have subsequently been excavated. For more details see the following website: www. Jaw from the three-toed horse, Hipparion. The Miocene The Miocene Epoch lasted for nearly 20 million years, between This span of time was one when global temperatures were warmer than in the preceding epoch the Oligocene or the one which followed the Pliocene. The Miocene was arguably the beginnings of our modern era, since many aspects of the global environment and its biota first appeared at this time, while the precursors of the ocean currents responsible for our climate system today were established.

This was largely influenced by the fact that the continents had more or less assumed their present relative positions. For example, India had moved north, colliding with the rest of the Asian continent, thus forcing up the Himalayas. The initiation of such mountain ranges may have eventually helped cause a global climate cooling, leading to the Ice Ages.

Perhaps the most important development during this period was that of a new major terrestrial ecosystem, the grassland. The first appearance of such grasslands was probably caused in part by the higher temperatures which dried the continental interiors.

This new ecosystem was particularly important in moulding the faunas discovered in Abu Dhabi in recent years. In fact, it can be argued that the existence of such grasslands was a prerequisite for the eventual evolution of an upright primate such as ourselves.

Most of all, however, it saw the appearance of the first grass-eaters, such as horses, rhinos, camels, giraffe, cattle, deer, and antelopes, as well as a diversification of rodents and carnivores in the dog, cat, hyena and weasel families to take advantage of them.

Arabia, as part of the Eurasian continent, stood then, as now, at the crossroads of Africa and Eurasia, albeit for the first time. As a result, it was the region through which the sharing of animals between the two continents took place. At this time, even-toed hoofed mammals like pigs, deer, antelope and giraffe moved into Africa from Eurasia, while members of the elephant family and apes and old world monkeys spread in the opposite direction.

By the time of the Late Miocene, the period covered by the fossils from Western Abu Dhabi, this exchange had been completed as seen by the inclusion of Stegotetrabelodon elephants and the old-world monkey that had originated in Africa. The deposits are the youngest in a series of Miocene sediments starting with a limestone formed under marine conditions the Dam Formation followed by a series of wind-blown sands and evaporitic sediments characteristic of a desert much like Abu Dhabi today the Shuwaihat formation.

Evaporitic sediments are ones partially produced by the evaporation of water leaving behind dissolved calcium carbonate and gypsum. Next, there was a much wetter phase with greater evidence for plants in the form of root casts and structures indicative of river deposition the Baynunah Formation. These deposits contain the various animal fossil bones discovered by the Whybrow and Hill team in the s and early s, as well as those found during later fieldwork conducted by the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey, ADIAS.

The lusher environment supporting the other large herbivores is also indicated by soil formation seen in various sediment profiles. The rivers depositing the sands and gravels were evidently quite large with multiple channels covering a wide area, no doubt with vegetated sections between channels.

One such fossil river bed near Mirfa has been estimated to have been over metres wide. The age of the Baynunah Formation has been estimated as 6 — 8 million years old, based in part on a technique called palaeomagnetic dating Fig. This uses the evidence in the rocks for the former magnetic field of the earth which has changed relative orientation through time due to factors including the movement of the continental landmasses by continental drift.

The Fossils Plants Plant are well represented in the Baynunah Formation but, since their fossils are mostly root casts, it is not possible to say in any detail what plants they belonged to. Acacia and palm have been tentatively identified on the basis of mineralised wood.

Invertebrates The invertebrates found include molluscs, most of which are swan mussels, and small microscopic crustacea called ostracods. The swan mussels are freshwater bivalves and are relatively common, confirming the fluvial nature of the deposits from which they come. They also emphasise the greater amount of water available at the time. Two species were found that seem to indicate that they lived in flowing water, as their shape is relatively simple and flattened.

The mussels lived partly buried in the riverbed, feeding on small particles of food carried by the water. The fossils found are either the shells themselves or moulds of the insides of the shells. The other mollusc that has been found is a mould of a small land snail that presumably lived on the banks of the river. The ostracods are small free-swimming shelled animals, allied to the shrimps and crabs, and are common components of a river fauna, although different species live in a variety of types of water, including the sea, today.

Fish The presence of fish fossils are a further indication that the deposits of the Baynunah Formation were laid down by rivers. Three types of fish have been found so far, including two catfish Clarias and Bagrus shuwaiensis and a member of the carp family, a barbel Barbus. These are all freshwater fish and are often found in relatively gentle flowing rivers. Reptiles Crocodiles, tortoises and turtles are all found in the Miocene of Abu Dhabi.

Of these, the crocodiles consist of both the true crocodiles Crocodylus as well as the more slender-jawed gharial crocodiles Gavialis.

The latter are rarer in the Baynunah Formation and feed almost exclusively on fish, and especially catfish, very common in these sediments. The shape of their rostrum jaws allows for greater speed in the water when pursuing fish. The more robust jaws of the true crocodiles allow them to hunt a broader range of prey, including terrestrial mammals with a degree of defensive abilities and strength. The existence of these two types of crocodiles is slightly unusual and may imply that they occupied different habitats or a kind of territorial behaviour not seen today.

The most common fossils found of these creatures are isolated teeth and bony scutes from their skin, although mandible and skull fragments have also been found Fig. The tortoise is a large species Geochelone which is herbivorous but can withstand very arid conditions. Included among the turtles are Trionyx which is a good swimmer and is generally found living in wide open rivers and lakes.

Mauremys, on the other hand, is a turtle that prefers more ephemeral habitats including muddy waters and is not a very competent swimmer. Both the turtles are principally carnivorous Birds The presence of large numbers of eggshell fragments of an extinct member of the ostrich family signifies that bird fossils are relatively common.

However, only three confirmed fossil bird bones have been found from the Miocene of Abu Dhabi, two of which were found during the Whybrow and Hill field work and another from the more recent work of ADIAS. The only bird identified from the earlier excavations was that of an egret Egretta , possibly the great white egret, which is still a winter visitor to the Emirates today.

The other bird identified is a darter or snakebird Anhinga found today in most relatively warm parts of the world Central and South America, India, Africa and Australasia. It is also present in the marshes of southern Iraq. Both these birds are associated with water and eat fish. Mammals Mammals are the best represented group of vertebrates in the Baynunah Formation. A very obvious feature of this mammalian fauna is that it is disproportionately made up of large megafaunal elements.

Mammals with a body mass lower than 40 Kg are almost absent. The greater mechanical strength of the bones of larger mammals also probably played a role. The elephant family was mostly represented by Stegotetrabelodon syrticus, known predominantly from Africa. They had tusks in both upper and lower jaws. Those of the upper jaws were larger and measured up to 2. Stegotetrabelodon is the best known elephant from Abu Dhabi with finds of an incomplete skeleton found at Shuwaihat Fig.

This skeleton is made up of a skull, lower jaw, many parts of the vertebral column, ribs and elements of both the forelimbs and hindlimbs. The smallest bones, such as those of the feet, were missing. Other finds include a lower jaw without teeth and various isolated teeth. These finds are described in more detail in the following chapter. The other elephants found, albeit in smaller numbers, were a type of Mastodon and a Deinothere. The Mastodon were a primitive group of elephants with lower crowned teeth adapted to browsing.

The Deinothere on the other hand were a group of elephants that lacked upper tusks although possessed lower ones and instead of having a trunk like a modern elephant they had a large overhanging muscular structure similar to tapirs. The odd-toed ungulates include two Hipparion species one now named Hipparion abudhabiensis and a rhinoceros. The Hipparions were three-toed horses of the last few million years, the immediate precursors to the modern true horses in the genus Equus Fig.

The two Hipparion species differed in size. The most common, Hipparion abudhabiensis, was a small to medium sized horse, probably a grazer, with a wide muzzle, while the rarer type an unnamed Hipparion species was larger.

The rhinoceros is known from sparse remains and none have been identified to species. These include the pigs, hippopotami, cattle, antelopes, gazelle and giraffe. The pigs belonged to two types and confirm the connections with both Africa and Asia. One type Propotamochoerus is of Asian affinity and occurs in the Siwaliks, a pushed together Tertiary sediment succession at the southern edge of the Himalayas, located within the political boundaries of Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bhutan, while the other Nyanzachoereus is restricted to Africa.

The hippopotamus in the Baynunah Formation is Hexaprotodon, a smaller animal than the common African hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius which was formerly found as far afield as northern Europe. Two well-preserved jaws were found during the Whybrow and Hill field work, one of which belonged to an immature individual with only partially-erupted permanent teeth. The giraffes from the Abu Dhabi Miocene include possible Palaeotragus and Bramatherium as well as unidentified giraffe-like bones.

The two identified giraffes are Sivatheres, short-necked giraffes, which are well-known browsers in the late Miocene. The other even-toed ungulates are in the bovid family and include the cattle, antelope and gazelle. These include Tragoportax cyrenaicus, represented by a partial skull with the twisted horn cores preserved, and Pachyportax latidens another type of cattle.

Spiral-horned antelopes are represented by Prostrepsiceros and the gazelle Gazella , known only from poorly preserved material. The ruminants as a whole seem to suggest that the environment in the late Miocene was parkland that was unlikely to be very dry. A single canine of a male monkey is the only evidence of old-world monkeys yet found in the Arabian Peninsula.

Remarkably a number of small mammals, rodents and an insectivores were found. These included the teeth of a new gerbil named Abudhabia baynunensis, a cane rat, a jerboa, an old world rat and an undetermined shrew. These were only found because of a sieving programme undertaken on gravel deposits from Shuwaihat in The biogeographic affinities of the small mammal fauna is a mixture of African and Asian on the basis of other Miocene finds of the animals.

The Red Sea seems not to have formed a barrier to dispersal during the Miocene, as it does today. Finally, there were also rare examples of carnivore fossils. Description of the Miocene Environment of Abu Dhabi Let us try to breath life into the 6 — 8 million year old geology and fossils from Abu Dhabi. Imagine a scene very much like the savannah grasslands of East Africa today.

A broad river flows through this plain dotted with acacia trees Fig. Further upstream in some muddy dead water beyond a wide bend, two young hippo cows are keeping cool during the midday sun whilst a number of large two metre long crocodiles bask on the bank. Nearby an egret wades in the shallows, eyes alert for fry. The egret takes flight and a herd of enormous beasts slowly appear, pushing their way through the undergrowth.

These are Stegotetrabelodon, elephants with two sets of tusks, one set in their upper jaw and another shorter set in the lower.

The matriarch leads the way to the water's edge causing the hippos to startle, half swimming, half running for a few metres. One of the crocodiles splashes into the water and disappears. Four others have followed her to the river. None had successfully reared young this year, so they have nothing to fear from the sabre-toothed-cat whose scent they had picked up from some scats by a nearby bush. An adult male cat had quenched his thirst there at day break.

Midstream was a small vegetated island surrounded by gravel bars against one of which the carcass of a Stegotetrabelodon had become mired. An adult male had succumbed to hunger some weeks earlier when summer was at its height, and had fallen into the river, being washed down to the shores of the island.

On the opposite bank, a few hundred yards away, some gazelle are drinking with a large antelope effectively keeping watch. A group of baboons who had just finished playing were sitting under a tree grooming each other. Further out on the savannah, a large herd of some thirty or so horses were grazing. These were Hipparion, three-toed horses but like the horses of today in every other way. Some shrubs were being browsed by an ancient relative of the giraffe.

Almost a giraffe but not quite, shorter and less ungainly. Two stoic buffaloes come into view. Unlike the elephants, they can be felled by the top predator of the day, the sabre-tooth cat, but show no sign of appearing worried.

A kilometre away, a female hyaena has brought the head of an antelope back to the lair where an excited group of youngsters come bounding out. They attempt to tear the dried flesh from the dessicated skull with little help from their mother. The exercise becomes a game rather than a serious attempt at feeding. One of the pups has noticed a large tortoise a little way off and, followed by two others, goes to investigate.

They soon loose interest when they find the animal does not respond and simply plods on. Not very far away, a family of hogs are rooting around in an old waterhole left from recent rains and gradually drying up and becoming a dustbath. An abandoned nest of an ostrich-like bird excavated into a rise of ground lay beyond the waterhole. The area was covered in fragments of eggshell. The sun is starting to cast long shadows as the evening draws nearer.

The sun, whose relative position to the earth will some day change all this, is today sustaining it. The climate of the earth is driven by the sun and, depending on the configuration of this spinning and orbiting heavenly body around the sun, the climate will differ. The scene is familiar, and yet none of the animals and possibly few plants are truly modern.

The savannah of Western Abu Dhabi and these organisms were all destined for extinction to be replaced by the desert dunes and sabkhas now found in Arabia and the wildlife that lives here. A saber-toothed cat tries to sink its teeth into the primitive 3-toed horse, Hipparion. How do we find fossils? Second, a knowledge of zoology helps a great deal because we are looking for shapes that are not minerals, not sedimentary structures nor weathered pebbles, but skeletal remains.

A vertebra or rib just poking out of the rock has, to us, a recognisable form. Sometimes we are totally wrong. Field identifications, especially of bone fragments, can be suspect because comparative material is unavailable, and the bone is either attributed to the wrong animal or to the wrong part of the body.

Finally, there is the search itself. A colleague once said that a search for fossils appears to consist of a lot of aimless wandering. We note the types of rocks exposed and try to imagine what the environment was like millions of years ago. In fact, clues are being looked for: this clay layer is no good for large fossils as it was deposited in very calm waters; this coarse-grained, bedded sandstone is no good as it seems to be river bed deposit.

But here is a pocket of fine-grained sandstone that may have been a bar in a meander of the river. So, below where this sediment was exposed, we start to crawl up the slope with our eyes about 10 centimetres from the ground — not much fun in a high wind.

Soon, recognisable shapes appear — tiny fish teeth, pieces of crocodile bone and complete rodent teeth all winnowed out of a fossil-bearing layer by recent erosion.

After finding this layer, we must find how far it extends and, invariably because the sediments are river-channel deposits, it peters out into seemingly barren sandstones. Chapter 5, Pages Quote taken from Pages , in P.

Whybrow ed. How did we find the fossil site at Ruwais? The initial survey demonstrated that this was an area of very considerable palaeontological significance. An extensive spread of fossils was noted on the lower slopes of the barqat to the east of the area and on the slopes of areas of raised relief to the north-west of the area as well as in the core zone destined for the first phase of the TAKREER development Fig.

Following the initial visit to the site in April , a further brief visit in June was undertaken by Simon Aspinall and Dr.

An inspection of previously-identified sites was undertaken and a strategy for further survey work and excavation was discussed and planned. Three people took part in the survey, Simon Aspinall, Dr. Transects were made by 4-wheel drive car across the initial area marked for development of the hazardous waste treatment plant. This was an area of X metres 0.

Regular stops were made to check all likely deposits for fossil remains. All three personnel then walked on foot around fossiliferous deposits collecting all visible fossil remains, with the exception of very small fragments which were unlikely to be identifiable to species. A number of rich fossil-bearing sites discovered during the October survey were re-visited to search for further fossil specimens for collection.

Other areas not previously examined were also visited, inspection being undertaken by walking transects. An additional 22 fossil sites were discovered RW This work was done by a team comprising Dr. Mark Beech, Peter Hellyer, Dr. During this particular weekend a fossil specimen of major international importance was discovered at the locality named RUW This was an almost complete tusk of a Proboscid elephant.

The fourth phase of fieldwork on the site took place in December The team for this work consisted of Dr. The fifth and final phase of fieldwork on the site took place in March This work involved the excavation and removal of three remaining major clusters of fossil specimens, and their transportation to Abu Dhabi.

This work was carried out by Dr. Mark Beech and Will Higgs. How do we know the age of the fossils? The fossils are deposited within the remains of a geological stratum which has been dated to the Late Miocene period, ca.

Previous palaeontological studies have shown that the formation, which has the scientific name of the Baynunah formation, has the most significant assemblage of Late Miocene terrestrial vertebrate fauna anywhere in the Arabian peninsula Whybrow and Hill ; cf.

The underlying Shuwaihat Formation is revealed by marine erosion at the base of many sea cliffs in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi.

This was deposited about 13 million years ago when Abu Dhabi had a desert climate not unlike the present day — dunes, sabkha and very little rainfall.

The overlying Baynunah formation was laid down at a time of improved climatic conditions. A river then eroded away most of the Shuwaihat Formation and deposited its sediments in numerous channels separated by low sandbanks.

How do we record fossil sites? The locations of all the fossil concentrations at Ruwais were recorded during the survey using a handheld GPS. Co-ordinates were taken using decimal degrees and minutes latitude and longitude, the datum being WGS The fossil site locations were then superimposed on a satellite image of the area Fig. Where important clusters of fossils were discovered, we sometimes decide to undertake a proper excavation.

First of all the edges of the trench are marked out. A map is made of the surrounding area to record the original contours of the ground surface.

Excavation then slowly proceeds. The excavators squat or lie close to the ground and use hand trowels, small hand shovels and brushes to gradually remove the sediment from within the trench. All the removed sediment should be sieved, if possible, to recover the smallest fossil fragments.

The excavator looks for subtle changes in the colour and consistency of the sediment that is being removed. Each different natural layer of sediment is given a different number, so any fossil finds lying within that particular sedimentary layer receive the same number, its context number.

Whereas a fossil survey might be carried out in the course of a day, a few days or a few weeks, excavations can last for weeks, months or even years! When fossils are discovered in particular layers, a plan is made of the precise location of all the specimens.

Photographs are made with a signboard describing the site location, a north arrow and scale being placed next to the fossil specimen. Once this has been done, the fossil may be lifted. How this is done depends on the size and status of the fossil in question. Smaller well- preserved fossil fragments are generally simply picked up and placed into small sealable plastic bags, the relevant details being written on the outside of the bag, as well as on a label inside the bag.

Larger, more fragile, fossil specimens may require special treatment. This was the case for some of the fossils from the Ruwais site see below. What types of fossils did we find at Ruwais? Fossils collected at Ruwais included the remains of fossil wood acacia , freshwater clams, catfish, turtle, crocodile, ostrich, hyena, elephant, horse, hippopotamus, pig and antelope Fig.

This is a very similar range of material to the earlier fossils discovered by the Natural History Museum and Yale University teams at other sites in the western region of Abu Dhabi. The most spectacular fossils from the Ruwais site were several large bones from primitive elephants. These are described in more detail as follows: The big elephantid tusk — Site RUW This was discovered during the November visit to the Ruwais fossil site.

It was an almost complete upper tusk from a primitive elephant species called Stegotetrabelodon syrticus. This is a type of primitive elephant which had four tusks, two longer upper quite straight tusks and two shorter lower parallel tusks.

The Ruwais tusk measured 2. Stegotetrabelodon lived in Abu Dhabi around 6 to 8 million years ago. Other fossils from this species have been discovered at a number of sites in the western region of Abu Dhabi such as Shuwaihat and Jebel Barakah.

The Ruwais tusk was, in fact, not one complete tusk but thousands of fragile fragments, bound together by its surrounding sediment.

It was necessary, therefore, to undertake some conservation treatment on the tusk before it could be fully excavated and removed from the site. The work was carried out between December The tusk was first consolidated in the field with Paraloid B72 in acetone.

Paraloid B72 is a very stable methacrylate co-polymer which is used by museum conservators all around the world due to its stability and because it is easily reversed by applying acetone.

It can be used with acetone as a consolidant, a sort of thin glue which can penetrate into permeable fossils and is therefore useful for fieldwork. The specimen was covered in tissue paper and foil and then plaster of Paris was used to make a rigid covering and support for the tusk as it was excavated. However, the plaster hardened too rapidly in the desert conditions, and there were worries about the specimen ultimately being too heavy to move.

Therefore, expanding polyeurathane foam was used to make a lighter, but nevertheless rigid, jacket around the remaining areas of the specimen and the hardened sand matrix surrounding it Fig.

Some of the tusk roughly the second quarter from the proximal end unavoidably suffered collapse during this tricky stage of excavation, as the interior of the tusk was a sandy material which the consolidant had not reached. The specimen and its encasing rigid jacket were underpinned by a specially-made and ingenious wooden and steel framework, to which the rigid field jacket was securely attached Fig. The tusk, in its protective jacket, was removed from the desert on the wooden framework to the ADIAS laboratory and storage facility at Maqta, Abu Dhabi.

Despite the size and fragility of the specimen and the weakness of the surrounding sediment the excavation was a great success. Nigel Larkin, the UK-based conservator, who had provided us with initial advice, subsequently made two visits to the UAE in February and October to work on the conservation and preparation for display of the Ruwais fossils see Chapter 4 for more details. Elephantid jaws — Site RUW Another important discovery at the Ruwais site was a pair of jaws from another elephantid.

The fossil specimens here were found just below the present-day ground surface, buried in a loose sandy matrix. They were heavily encrusted with gypsum so it was difficult to see the surface details on the jaws. Actually at Naval Group as Submarine business development Senior Manager and part of Lithium-ion batteries team as operational adviser. This stream typically features technical and scientific papers exploring new ideas and innovations in submarine platform design.

From early stage design processes, technological advancement in areas such as power and propulsion, to techniques and process associated with reducing cost and increasing platform availability during the in-service phase of the lifecycle. This webinar will focus on four key areas:. Additionally, the panel explore areas raised by questions from the audience related to the Platform Design stream.

About UDT The leading global undersea defence event. Webinar 3: Platform Design. About the webinar. Our third webinar explored the Platform Design conference pillar. Consultant, AtebTec Ltd Jeff graduated in Maritime Technology, and has spent 35 years working in the maritime domain on projects across the globe. Background information.

Contact us. View Webinar Schedule. Audience profile Who will you meet in Rostock? Conference Agenda Learn more about what to expect. Take part Enquire about exhibition opportunities. Who exhibits? See who has previously exhibited at our show.